He was one of a few early artists who defined local music for me while I still in those teenage years. I started listening to Charles Du Cane in high school. I can't remember how, but I used to trawl through a combination of MySpace and this new Triple J Unearthed website thing, searching for TASMANIAN acts. From memory, MySpace was easier to navigate (yes, queue laughter), but you could download the songs for free from Unearthed! What a revelation. I nabbed the available tunes and threw them onto my Lexar 256MB MP3 player, and listened to those three 128kbps badboys on the walk to school.
The three tracks, of course, were lifted from Charles Du Cane's debut. Tomahawk was the quirky electro-indie-pop thing that sat distanced from any other local 'indie-pop' I had encountered. The sample-based makeup of the album was a personal point of interest after having gone through a dance/electronic music phase the year before, but it was all tidy and structured and just nice, which wasn't something I found in most of my music collection at this time (it was probably filled with indie-rock, Sonic Youth/Joy Division stylee, that's how the end of high school goes right?).
I came back to Tomahawk after high-school, when in college I broke the same MP3 player and ended up defaulting to the trusted Discman. It forced me to choose a CD and stick with it - carrying extra discs was inconvenient and changing albums was clumsy. So it was, Tomahawk spun through my College days, studying/procrastinating in the library. It wasn't as twee as indie-pop could get (although definitely the most twee of all Du Cane records) but still mighty accessible in its approach to electronic pop music. It was fun ('Don't Sit The Woofer Near Your Wham! Tapes, Sweetheart'), light-hearted ('We'll All Be Together') and varied; a subtle antidote to that Year 11 boredom. Crayfish Legs came for dinner and we got to know each other.
Of the three Du Cane albums, 2009's Poets is both my personal favourite and, if I've surveyed critical reception correctly, his most popular release. (By "critical reception" I should really say 'judging from my friend's reactions', really.) Poets starts off incredibly strong with 'Granny Smith' before shifting into a few guitar-lead rock numbers, then landing on 'Judgement Day', an engaging, memorable song that shows off a darker and more lyrical Du Cane.
In about April-March 2011, I wrote 700 or so words for a review for Port & Rail that never found publication. The review felt unfairly finished, neglecting any appraisal of the lyrical content. The lyrics, full of their historical nuances and World War references, appeared delicately sweated-over; and passing over such a central part of the album irked me. Around the same time I got an email from Fred asking if I wanted a CD copy of the album, and I enquired about a possible lyrics sheet. He responded:
"The CD doesn't come with lyrics, but they're all up at http://charlesducane.net/port-and-rail-lyrics if you're interested. I actually considered adding footnotes & a bibliography at one point, as it's pretty dense with references that may not be apparent, but want to leave at least a touch of mystique to the whole thing."
The URL is now dead and the lyrics can now only be found in the songs (where they should be, really) and not in a booklet or webpage for me to obsessively/compulsively align some abstract review with; but looking back this exchange lead to the clarification of my criticisms. Whereas Poets' referential delicacy in its construction allowed for an unspoken mystique, Port & Rail was too concrete, too indebted to history to ever craft this same touch. If it helps, though, you can now tackle Port & Rail with new linear notes, which act as a kind of guide for those who want to dig a little deeper into the record. It's probably worth it.
Charles Du Cane - Call You My Own
It seems that Port & Rail is the point where Fred Showell, kingpin of Project Charles Du Cane, had learnt all he could in the realm of sample-based, beat-inspired pop oddity. It feels a deliberate step away from the inventiveness of earlier work and towards a more naturally instrument-based construction. It's his guitar album, you could say. In a way, it was dually ambitious and laconically accessible: ambitious in its attempts to converge the Du Cane pop universe with heritage rock; yet laconic in its championing of the latter's tropes and conduct. This could be an exaggeration on the whole, as several songs from the record are propelled by those trademark sample-heavy beats, but sometimes even the sampling feels especially fitted for the occasion, with lively 1930s carnival brass filling out 'Best Bent Wire'. As an album that leaned towards this heritage rock, the album material was far more viable to perform live than earlier tracks. Although I think I've only ever seen Charles Du Cane in solo karaoke mode once, the Port & Rail band outshines the funny phoenix singing along to his own backing track via laptop.
I remember the first time I met Fred - a week after our email back-and-forth - in which he gave me a copy of Port & Rail on CD and excitedly remarked on how the recycled digipak stock smelled like wood. In this old-time record set with the task of summoning an era far before digital - a time of port and rail - it was genuinely delighting to its creator to have this physical analogue. This authenticity that Charles Du Cane had worked towards in the writing, conceptualising and recording of the album was evident in the music, and this little wooden aroma of the packaging was a validation of it all.
Listening to the newly released Rarities collection, the contrast between demo tracks and finished album arrangements is staggering. These early takes aren't simply skeletons, but that doesn't make them mere stepping stones in a grander scheme. They're vague shapes of eventual pop beauties and though these demoes It's exciting to imagine the work gone in to reconstructing these malleable walls, framework piano/guitar mixed down (or out) and replaced by plasters of considered sampling. The clear, sometimes gaping gap between early and final version is indicative of the talent at work here. Fingers crossed we hear something from Camp Showell in the future.
On Rarities, one of the unheard covers is "Make Your Own Kind Of Music". It kind of epitomises the reason Charles Du Cane ever existed in the first place; a manifesto of sorts. I don't think you could ever slight Charles Du Cane for having tread in unoriginal art – this was wholly unique, enjoyable pop music. Stylistically, it stands up on two feet as its own kind of music. It faltered at times, sure, but the three solid, individual albums are all something to be proud of; all something to sing along to.
"You've gotta make your own kind of music,
Sing your own special song,
Make your own kind of music,
Even if nobody else sings along."
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Join the final Du Cane bows at the MONA FOMA Festival Club @ the Grand Poobah tonight. $10 entry / free if you have a ticket to Girl Talk. Capacity will be tight so get in early, doors at 10:30pm.
You can now download the entire Charles Du Cane discography for free on his website.
Long live Charles Du Cane.
